The Justification in the Jerk
by imabookworm815
Summary: Booth blew off the gang for a girl. Or did he? Find out Booth's secret. AU. Based on 6x07 and 6x09.
1. The Justification in the Jerk

**AN: Okay like most of you I thought that Booth acted the jerk and OOC in Babe in the Bar. I promised myself I wouldn't try to excuse him though, too bad my muse wasn't informed about my decision. Okay so this was written at 2 am without a beta, so excuse any mistakes. Tell me what you think about this, even if you hate it, just hate it constructively. lol**

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Booth was looking forward to the "Official" Hodgins baby announcement at the Founding Fathers. Sure he knew that Hodgins would realize that they all knew, Brennan was a horrible actress, and he didn't have much confidence in Sweets, Cam, or the Squintern of the Week, but if it came down to it, Booth would lie and say he'd guessed and told the squints. After all, what was important was being there to celebrate the good news. Booth was in such a good mood that even Brennan's "Love is an idiot" comment couldn't bring him down for long.

Unfortunately, there was something that could. They were just a couple hundred feet away from the Founding Fathers when his phone vibrated.

"Oh, look at that. Hannah's back. Um, you know, this whole thing that we're going to here. The official announcement that Angela's pregnant? Yeah, I feel um, I feel pretty stupid pretending." Brennan's face during this was rather amused.

"You're trying to find a justification so you can go home and have sex with Hannah, right?"

"Yeah." Booth looked down ashamedly, but wiped the shame off his face when he looked up. "Plus, we already all know anyway."

"But Hodgins doesn't know we know."

"Yeah, but Angela says that if you can't pretend not knowing, then you shouldn't go, so I shouldn't go."

"If you want, I can lie to all of our friends, and say that you have pressing FBI business."

Booth sighed, "I don't like the idea of lying to our friends, but I'm going to go with it, thanks." Booth walked away hurriedly not wanting to look Brennan in the eyes.

"Uh, tell Hannah welcome home."

Booth had to turn back and smile a little bit at that, before hurrying off. It turned out he might have actually been able to fool Hodgins, apparently his acting skills weren't that bad, Booth thought bitterly.

Booth drove through DC in a foul mood, pissed off at the world, but mostly pissed off at the United States Government. He pulled into a storage facility and drove through the complex until he came to the storage locker he wanted. He parked in front of it and left the headlights on, as he slid the door up, the halogen beams illuminated the entire locker. Booth walked in and picked up the high powered sniper rifle, along with his instructions.

It turns out Uncle Sam didn't like people backing out of their contracts just so they could be with their kid. The Army had let him go, but only because the CIA had stepped in. It turns out there were certain people living in the United States that the CIA would prefer to keep from being brought to the public's notice, such as would occur if they succeeded in blowing up a building. So here he was, crossing names off his cosmic list by day and adding to it by night.

But when Booth got back in the SUV he erased these thoughts from his mind, he had a job to do. He focused only on his instructions, not even dwelling on the reason he was doing all of this. Booth was efficient, he was a professional, and right now he shouldn't feel, couldn't feel.

He'd taken out the target with one quiet shot and left without another look back. As he got back in the SUV he'd parked far away from the scene, Booth noticed his phone flashing on the dash, hey, look at that, Hannah really was coming home tonight.

Booth arrived before Hannah, taking a hot shower in a vain effort to wash away the blood or at least the memory. He walked out of the shower noticing that there was no towel hanging on the rack, he walked into his bedroom dripping wet, when he was stopped in his tracks by a wolf whistle. "Wow, isn't that a sight for sore eyes." Hannah said as she dumped her duffel by the door and sauntered up to him. She wrapped her arms around him and kissed him as if she'd been in the desert for forty days and he was water. And Booth let himself forget about cosmic lists and instead went about making Brennan's words earlier that night true.


	2. The Rescue in the Rain

**So i decided to write this whenever I'm inspired. Still not sure if they'll just be one shots based on episodes or if I should develop the story forming in my head more. This one has spoilers for 6x09. My take on what Booth was doing in Woodland. Anyway, I just realized to day that I should really start doing this:**

**Disclaimer: I own neither Booth nor Bones, nor even their dialogue in this chapter, all I own is Booth's thoughts. Mmm, sounds naughty.

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Chapter 2: The Rescue in the Rain

Booth's clothes were pretty casual for what he was about to do. Almost didn't seem right, as if his clothes should convey the gravity of his presence. But it didn't really matter no one was going to see him, anyway.

The rain sluiced down Booth's head, getting into his eyes, obstructing his view of the slum apartment building, where his target was. Yet another psycho that plotted against the United States and Booth was about to shut him down. _I can't believe I'm a fricking CIA spook, if Hodgins knew about this, I'd definitely be out of the running as godfather_, was his last thought as affable Seeley Booth was replaced with the professional Staff Sargeant Booth. And then he was gone, the professional set up the rifle on the ledge of the bridge, forgetting his aggravations, instead focusing on compensating for the reduced visibility. He was just about ready to take his shot when a cab pulled up in front of the bridge. He'd have to wait until the cab and the passenger were out of sight to take the shot. His gaze still on the target, he noticed that the passenger was taking her time. Sparing the woman a glance he saw her walk towards the middle of the road, seemingly mesmerized by the road reflector.

Out of nowhere, his gut sensed danger. The woman was in danger and his gut was telling him to run. So Booth ran, he ran down to the street, rushing to get to her before the car that had just abruptly turned the corner could. His gut urged him to run faster, all of a sudden Booth knew who the woman was. His gut screamed at him that this was his Bones and Booth yelled right along with it. "Bones!" His fear increasing a hundred-fold as he realized that the car was almost on top of her now. But then his hands were on her, grabbing her under the arms, he pulled her with him to safety.

"Bones! What are you doing here?"

"What are you doing?"

"I don't know. Following you to a bad part of town and saving your life. You know. The usual. Your turn." The lie spilled out of his lips effortlessly. Is this what he'd become? The kind of man who lied and kept secrets from his partner?

"Lauren came to Woodland to beg the family of a brain-dead boy to give his heart to Sam Dworsky."

This was about the case? Booth switched from Ranger mode to Special Agent mode in seconds. "Oh, so what? They... They were the ones that killed her?

"No, Booth. No. When Lauren was really disappointed or upset, It's like Sweets said. She couldn't handle the intense emotion, so she'd do something dangerous."

"Right. Like coming here in the middle of the night?" He said trying to drive his point across_. _Why couldn't she understand that this was dangerous? They'd found a victim who'd been stabbed and bludgeoned, an obvious indicator that this was not a safe neighborhood. But Bones just couldn't understand that.

"I'm not her." Wait, what? She thought she was like Lauren Eames? "We're...We're not the same person at all. It's just the universe turned upside down for three days."

"What happened to her?"

"She bought the heroin for the danger of it. To feel something. She put it in her pocket. She got hit by a car." Booth couldn't believe that Brennan was basing all of this off conjecture, she never did that. "Just like I almost did." Booth thanked God, she didn't, he was even feeling a little grateful to the CIA for placing him in the right place at the right time. "The impact explains the defensive wounds. She struck her head over there." She pointed to the yellow reflector that she'd been so engrossed in minutes before. "So it was the driver that buried her in the park."

"I can't prove any of this." The corner of her mouth lifted in an attempt to smile, in an attempt to get him to believe her.

"I know."

"But do you still believe me?"

"Yeah." Booth smiled just for her, he hadn't smiled like that since they'd come back. "Of course I do. All right? Let me take you home. Come on."

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**You can definitely expect a third chapter, after all we still have the car scene to analyze right? I just thought this was a good place to end it. Oh and I'd really appreciate it if you told me what you think, thanks for reading. **


	3. Tears in the Night

**Hope you guys are still interested in this. it took me a while to get to it, because of a particularly hectic post-holidays. Regardless tell me what you think. And if you want more then cross your fingers that Thursday will be inspiring. lol. Anyways, enjoy. **

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**Chapter 3: Tears in the Night**

They hadn't spoken since they'd entered the car but Booth had to know.

"Um, Bones, what's been going on? Why did you say that you and Lauren aren't the same person? I mean, I know that. She's not you, Bones."

"I know, it's just this case, Booth. I lost all objectivity. She's so much like me."

When Brennan said that she'd lost all objectivity, he thought back to all the times she'd left. This last time though, it'd killed him. He'd thought leaving as well, would help, but it'd only hurt. He couldn't have her leave again though, if this was the only way that he'd ever have her, he could live with that. But he needed her as his partner, or else he'd never be able to do this job again. "Maybe you just need a couple days off.

"I'm all right now. Except I... I made a mistake."

Booth looked at Brennan, could she really be saying? No, don't be stupid, Booth. "No, I told you my opinion. I mean you got it right."

"Not everything."

What else could there be, he thought, everything is explained.

"She died with regrets."

"Come on, Bones. Everybody has regrets."

"I heard her, you know?" Booth did know what she meant, he used to be able to hear them too. But it was such an un-Bones thing for her to say.

"Micah says that all we get are these..." Brennan chuckled nervously, "dim, staticky messages from the universe."

Booth nodded as if he understood. "Who is this Micah guy?"

"The night watchman. But he attends a lot of lectures. Anyway, the point is, she never gave him a chance."

"Micah?" Booth knew deep down what she was saying. He hadn't completely lost the ability to read her after Afghanistan. He just didn't want to hear it.

"No. No. The helicopter pilot. He offered himself to her, but she never gave him a chance." Booth couldn't deny it anymore, she saw what he saw. It seemed that in every case, Booth could see himself in it. In this case, the helicopter pilot had clearly been in his shoes. "That was her regret."

Booth was at a loss for words. "I got the signal, Booth. I don't want to have any regrets."

Oh god, Bones I wish it was that easy. But I have regrets too. I'm not the same man from that night and you don't even know it. I can lie to Hannah, cause she doesn't know me, not like you. But you'd know, Bones, you'd know I was lying. I don't deserve you, and if I did that to Hannah I definitely wouldn't be the kind of guy you should be with. I did that once, Bones, and it fell apart anyway. "Um... I'm with someone." I can't do this just because you have regrets. "Bones." Hannah deserves better too. "And, uh, Hannah? She's not a consolation prize. I love her."

Hearing Bones cry tore at Booth's heart, he'd been there when she cried over her parents and later her parents. But he hadn't been the cause of her tears, he'd always been able to hug her and comfort her, he couldn't do that now. Instead, he said the only thing that he could. "You know, the last thing I want to do is hurt you, but those are the facts." He turned away at her sob.

"I understand... I missed my chance."

Booth's jaw twitched in anger at the unfairness of it all and some of that was anger at her. If only this had happened before they'd left, he'd be a different man. He would have been able to stop her tears, giving her what she wanted, but not now. Now he was with someone else, and he was someone else. .

"My whole world turned upside down. I can adjust."

Booth thought about how he'd adjusted to killing people, not just in war, but here in his country. How he'd adjusted to lying to everyone. "I did."

"Yes, you did."

The anger subsided, and he thought of her, of what she needed. "Do you want me to call someone to be with you, or...?" It couldn't be him this time though and it hurt him.

"No, I'm fine, alone... Thanks."

Booth drove her home in silence. He longed to comfort her, reach out and touch her, to tell her that he'd always be there for her. But he'd been through this and he knew that was the last thing she wanted to hear. She got out of his SUV with barely a 'bye', and he watched her walk up the steps to her building but unlike other times he didn't wait for her lights to turn on.

Booth turned right around and drove back to Woodland. Even if he couldn't finish the job, he'd left his rifle behind in his panic. Luckily for Booth, his gun was still there and tonight's target was an insomniac. Usually Booth divorced all emotion when actually taking the shot. But after tonight he just couldn't do it. His guilt and anger were battling for dominance. And so it was the heartbroken Seeley Booth who took the shot, not the Sergeant and not the Agent. Just Booth.

Booth saw the bullet spinning through the air, seeking out the warmth of Albert Samuel's beating heart. He watched as it tore through Albert. From Bones and Cam, he knew that it drove through the sternum, the right ventricle and the right rib. He saw Albert slump on top of his kitchen table, his bowl of food spilling onto the floor.

As Booth gazed at the life he'd taken, he'd started to cry. The first tears were brutally wiped off his face, but he couldn't stop. He slumped down behind the bridge's ledge and gave in to the tears. He cried for Albert, he cried for Bones, and he cried for himself.


End file.
